Didier Dezor, a researcher at the Biological Behavior Laboratory of the University of Nancy, placed six rats in one cage to study their swimming abilities. The only way out of the cage led to a pool that had to be swum across to reach the food trough. It soon became clear that the rats did not swim together in search of food. Everything happened as if they had distributed roles among themselves. There were two exploited swimmers, two exploiters who did not swim, one independent swimmer, and one non-swimming scapegoat.
Two exploited rats dived into the water for food. Upon returning to the cage, the two exploiters beat them until they gave up their food. Only when they were full did the exploited have the right to eat after them. The exploiters never sailed. They limited themselves to the fact that they constantly gave swimmers a beating in order to eat their fill.
The autonomus was a strong enough swimmer to get food himself and, without giving it to the exploiters, to eat it himself. Finally, the scapegoat could not swim and intimidate the exploiters, so he ate the remaining crumbs.
The same division—two exploiters, two exploited, one autonomist, one scapegoat—reappeared in twenty cells where the experiment was repeated.
To better understand this mechanism of hierarchization, Didier Desor placed six exploiters together. They fought all night. The next morning the same roles were distributed. Two exploiters, two exploited, a scapegoat, autonomous. The researcher obtained the same result by placing in one cell six exploited, six autonomous and six scapegoats.
Whatever the individuals, they always eventually distribute roles among themselves. The experiment was continued in a large cage, where two hundred rats were placed. They fought all night. In the morning, three flayed rats were found crucified on a net. Moral: the larger the population, the more cruelty towards scapegoats.
At the same time, the exploiters in a large cage have created a hierarchy of deputies to impose their power through them, and do not even bother themselves by directly terrorizing the exploited.
The Nancy researchers continued the experiment by examining the brains of the test subjects. They concluded that it was not the scapegoats or the exploited who experienced the greatest stress, but quite the opposite, the exploiters. They no doubt feared losing their privileged status and being forced one day to start working themselves.